Veterans unveil counter petition for Fort Ord space

County voters may have two choices when it comes to the fate of 540 acres on Fort Ord.

In reaction to an initiative that seeks to designate the land as open space, the county's business and veterans councils revealed a counter measure Friday.

The counter initiative designates as developable almost all of the land the Fort Ord Access Alliance wants undeveloped.

The opposing camps are collecting signatures on petitions to qualify their initiatives for a special election ballot.

Alliance spokesman Jason Campbell said Friday the counter petition "is to facilitate the Monterey Downs project." Part of the equestrian-themed park is proposed to be built on the so-called endowment parcel, whose sale for development would fund maintenance of the cemetery.

Counter-petition signer James Bogan, president of the Monterey County Veterans Council, said his group's initiative is necessary to ensure a veterans cemetery is built.

The Alliance initiative does not seek to get rid of the proposed cemetery or its endowment parcel, but it designates 370 acres also planned for Monterey Downs as open space.

Some veterans argue that making the area around the endowment parcel undevelopable would be a threat to the endowment. Business and community leaders say the initiative's open space goals threaten redevelopment and potential job creation.

"If those projects don't go, we don't go either," said Sid Williams, secretary of the veterans council, about the cemetery. "It's all connected."

Williams argued the Alliance petition was about more than Monterey Downs — that it could stop anything from ever being built on the endowment and the proposed open space.

"Those oak trees will not hire a soul," Williams said.

Campbell said his group is not anti-development but would rather see development take place on about 5,000 acres of blighted area made up of old military buildings and other developable land.

Bogan argued that developers would need to pay to get rid of the blight, and Williams said it was not possible to just move the endowment to the blighted areas because it has already been approved in its current spot.

Michael Salerno, spokesman for the group Keep Fort Ord Wild, said Friday he took particular issue with a passage in the counter petition that appeared to change the definition of "habitat management land use" to allow for hotels and other mixed-use projects.

"People can argue about the cemetery until they are blue in the face," he said, "but this is rezoning habitat management plan. ... This is really kind of out of left field."

Salerno said the area affected, which previously allowed for low-impact recreation like horse and bike riding, could be up to 400 acres.

Williams said the definition would only apply to the cemetery and the endowment — not any other areas designated for open space.

In addition to reaffirming Fort Ord's reuse plan for mixed-use development, the counter petition would set in stone the 50 acres of the Whispering Oaks area as open space. The Alliance petition does the same.

In addition to Bogan, the counter petition was signed by Mary Ann Leffel, president of the Monterey County Business Council; Alfred Diaz Infante, president and CEO of Community Housing Improvement Planning Association; Edith Johnsen, former Marina mayor and county supervisor; and W.B. "Butch" Lindley, former Monterey County supervisor.

Both petitions must gather about 17,000 signatures from registered voters to turn into the Ford Ord Reuse Authority, which will result in a special election.

Campbell said Friday his group had collected 5,000 signatures. Jack Stewart, judge advocate of the United Veterans Council of Monterey County, said he was confident his cause has the support it needs.